# 1972 in art

Events from the year 1972 in art.

## Events

* March–November – City Sculpture Project in England.
* May 21 – In St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican City), Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.
* June 8 – KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark, designed by Alvar and Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël, is completed.
* September 4 – 1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery.
* September 15 – Release in France of Luis Buñuel's surrealist film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
* September 16 – Opening of A.I.R. Gallery at 97 Wooster Street, SoHo, New York, the first artist-run, not-for-profit gallery for women artists in the United States.
* September – Release in the United Kingdom of Ken Russell's biographical film about Gaudier-Brzeska, Savage Messiah.
* October 4 – Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by Louis Kahn, is opened.
* date unknown
** BBC Television broadcasts Ways of Seeing, a four-part series by John Berger on art.
** The Bridgeman Art Library is established as a commercial virtual archive of images by Harriet Bridgeman in London.
** Costantino Nivola becomes the first non-American member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
** Friedensreich Hundertwasser publishes his architectural manifesto, Your window right – your tree duty.
** Portmeirion Pottery brings out its best-selling "Botanic Garden" design.
** Oliver Millar becomes the first full-time Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures in the United Kingdom, succeeding Anthony Blunt.

## Awards

* Archibald Prize: Clifton Pugh – The Hon E G Whitlam
* John Moores Painting Prize - Euan Uglow

## Works

* Francis Bacon – Triptych–August 1972
* Enrico Baj - The Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli
* Thomas Hart Benton – Joplin at the Turn of the Century
* Christo and Jeanne Claude – Valley Curtain (along Colorado State Highway 325)
* Bronisław Chromy – Wawel Dragon (statue, Kraków)
* Marcelle Ferron – Untitled stained glass panel at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
* Helen Frankenthaler – Coral Wedge
* Barbara Hepworth – Minoan Head and Assembly of Sea Forms
* David Hockney – Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
* Elek Imredy – Girl in a Wetsuit (bronze, Vancouver, British Columbia)
* Joan Jonas – Vertical Roll
* Alexander Liberman – Contact II (sculpture, Portland, Oregon)
* Natalia LL – Consumer Art (video series, begins)
* Paul McCarthy – Black and White Tapes
* Clifton Pugh – Death of a Wombat
* John Raimondi – David
* Liberty Bell (Portland, Oregon)
* Mansu Hill Grand Monument (Pyongyang, North Korea)

## Music

* Don McLean - Vincent - a tribute to Vincent van Gogh

## Births

* January 29 – Brian Wood, American author and illustrator.
* April 6 – Rinko Kawauchi, Japanese photographer.
* April 29 – Roman Dirge, American comic book artist and magician.
* July 2 – Coster Balakasi, Zimbabwean sculptor.
* July 19 – Zanele Muholi, South African visual activist.

### Full date unknown

* Andrea Büttner, German-born artists.
* Duncan Campbell, Irish-born video artist.
* Jules de Balincourt, French painter.
* Gilles Tréhin, French artist and author.
* Hema Upadhyay, née Hirani, Indian installation artist and photographer (d. 2015).

## Deaths
### January to June

* January 19 – Suzanne Malherbe, French illustrator and designer (b. 1892).
* February 19 – Tedd Pierce, American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist (b. 1906).
* March 13 – Tony Ray-Jones, English photographer (b. 1941).
* March 23 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer (b. 1895).
* March 27
** M. C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist (b. 1898).
** Ricco Wassmer, Swiss painter (b. 1915).
* April 26 - Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)

### July to December

* July 31 – Dod Procter, English painter (b. 1890)
* October 23 – Clarice Cliff, English ceramic artist (b. 1899)
* October 31 – Beta Vukanović, Serbian painter (b. 1872).
* December 23 – Norman Clyde, American mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist (b. 1885).
* December 24 – Gisela Richter, English archaeologist and art historian (b. 1882).
* December 29 – Joseph Cornell, American artist and sculptor (b. 1903).

### Full date unknown

* Gerard Curtis Delano, American painter (b. 1890).
* Ilija Bašičević, Serbian painter (b. 1895)